Burn Victims Return Home

PORTLAND—Three members of a Grand Ronde family who were badly burned in a motor vehicle fire have been discharged from the Oregon Burn Center, more than three months after the accident that claimed the lives of two other family members. Eyvette Davidson, 46, was the first to return home.

Now her husband Loren, 45, and son Benjamin, 13, have joined her.

The family’s 1997 GMC Suburban burst into flames on Highway 18 on June 20.

Investigators said an aerosol can of engine degreaser had leaked into a box of swimming pool chlorine in
the cargo compartment of the vehicle, setting off a fierce chemical reaction. The fire engulfed the vehicle in moments, before Loren Davidson even had time to pull off the heavily traveled highway.

The two younger children, Lucien, 11, and Janesse, 10, were trapped in the back seat.
The three older members of the family were up front, giving them a better chance. But they
suffered severe, life-threatening burns.

The Davidsons own Eyvettte’s Brookside Café, about six miles west of their Grand Ronde home on Highway 18.